About a Name

Dear Grandfather, how I wish to sit and. chat with you,

Marveling at the golden sun as it rises with the sounds of waves anew,

On the sands of Ngemelis we sit and watch as it shines through,

As I share with you this account of profound duty that is all true.

You don’t know me, born was I after the sun had set for you,

Into a world so promising, so fast, yet so taxing through and through.

One of bustling streets that isn’t Ernguul that you once knew,

But here, allow me the chance to express, to come clean, to construe.

The weight of your name has always followed, eclipsing over me,

From kinder it scoped what’s to be my destiny.

And so I have labored, I have lived, and I have loved fearlessly,

For the weight of your name, this lucid, unequivocal word, demands of me.

Ngoriakl is to forward, to progress, to elevate, forever these things be,

Always onward, not alone but with all, if not, with as many,

Wayfaring through the vast, beautiful, and menacing sea,

With your name I heed with care, with honor, and yet at times so weary.

Dear Grandfather you don’t know me and for this I cry,

The weight of your name on these shoulders I try,

Each year, each month, each week, day, and second I pry,

The cause of scorching injustice wherever it may lie.

Dear Grandfather I hear that your heart is deep, many agree,

For that I shall carry on this life predetermined for me,

With the weight of your name I let it guide and things I let be,

Because to Ngoriakl, to elevate, is to always work tirelessly.

Dear Grandfather, now I shall tell you a secret thing.

How I wish you had left instructions with warning,

For this life, this calling, whilst full of purpose and meaning,

Is also one so … so treacherously isolating.

-J. Ngoriakl